However, here's the deal, some ET members have been getting away with such for many years because some moderators or ET management itself believe the poster falls in the category of posting good content eventhough the good content has a fee-base link posted within the message post.

That in itself attracts other spammers because they think discussing their services is ok considering others are allowed to do so as none sponsors.

In addition, some of the ET members that have been spamming for a long time have cleverly buddy up with some of the moderators and TraderZones himself.

Simply, I've seen guys like TraderZones openly share trading interests with another member (he gets along with the person) and then intentionally turn a blind eye when that person spams. :eek:

It's a private club at ET...you're either in the "allowed spammer club" or not in the club and only a few have made it into the "allowed spammer club".

That club have privileges like the following...

* Warning only and you will never have your account deleted regardless how many times you plug in your website link or describe your business.

* Thank you posted publicly by ET management when the allowed spammer turns informant about another spammer.

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I myself stop notifying ET management about the typical first post spammer because the best spammers are under the radar here at ET via doing the following:

* Post links in their messages to their fee-base site...within a message that contains good content.

* Describe themselves as "we work with traders" or describe their business without posting links.

* Post charts here at ET with an annotation on the chart to their fee-base site.

* Gather email addresses via free subscription service to daily alerts or something like that. However, the gather email address is then used at another website for marketing purposes that's never mentioned at ET and that other website is fee-base.

* Provide free content or freely share methods here at ET that gets a very large following (members treat you like a guru) while openly denouncing spammers and vendors. Yet, at the same time, buddy up (promote) with another vendor to sneak that specific vendor in the backdoor within the so called free sharing thread under the facade the vendor is not like others.

However, ET is not alone here because this problem exist at other forums too like Traderlaboratory, T2W et cetera...

If I like you, you're not a spammer because you're such a good guy/gal that's helpful. If I don't like you...you're a spammer.

P.S. I got nothing against vendors especially if the vendor provides good content or helps improve trading.

I just got a problem with spamming considering there's more efficient ways to market a business for free without having to spam.

Well then maybe you need to notify us about the "best spammers" so we can take care of those issues as well

More...

You as in ET management have been notified mutiple times about individuals I'm talking about in my prior message.

Notification by others here in feedback, elsewhere via the complaint button, direct pms et cetera by others and me to moderators, Joe and you although the reference "best spammer" wasn't used...just spammer.

Don't you read the stuff?

Regardless, that's not the issue.

The issue is that the "best spammers" only get warnings because they also post good content at ET whereas someone else that only has a few message posts under their name will see their account deleted for the exact same type of spam. Hopefully I'm more clear now.

Why not delete the account of all spammers especially if they post spam more than once?

For example, how about if you post more than 10 spam...your account will be deleted when at least 10 message posts is verified to contain spam eventhough you may have +1000 other messages.

Call it the +10 Post Spam Rule.

You will never do that because you need the spammer's message posts because it's valuable bandwidth due to the fact that the "best spammers" have also hundreds or a few thousand other message posts that doesn't contain spam while a few dozen other message they've posted do contain spam...

Same "best spammers" that other members besides me have complained about in the past. The same "best spammers" that have started popular threads here at ET or posted actively amongst popular threads.

It's that bias that tells other spammers its ok to spam.

You can use your behind the scenes knowledge as the owner of this forum to see who I'm talking (one particular example) about via reviewing what threads I've been at today and whom I did a research on via the "search" menu. He's at the top of the "best spammer" list. Heck, he even has his user name as his fee-base website.

I'm simply asking that you notify me directly at this time of the people you are referring to. (aside from Marketsurfer, as he was banned yesterday for good.) You don't have to do it publicly of course. A simple PM is fine.

In regards to you other assertions, I immediate ban people who spam on their first post because history has shown me that when people spam on their first post, it's the only reason they are posting on the site to begin with. However, when a user has a past history of normal posts, and then all of sudden starts spamming, we give them a warning because their history tells us that they aren't just on the site to spam people. I don't think there's anything weird or irrational about that logic of site management.

Where the real problem comes in is with people like marketsufer, who posts thousands of legit posts, and then turns into a spamming, self-promoter. When I discover his spam, and send him a warning or suspend his account, he calls or emails with an apology and a promise that he won't do it any more so I let him back on the site. But then after a few months, or even years pass, the cycle repeats itself. Where I went wrong was giving him a third chance after he had already demonstrated that he couldn't keep his promise after the previous ban. That was my mistake, and I won't make it again.

So in summary, there really isn't a "buddy system" like one would think. I really have zero tolerance for spammers. Often times, I may get busy doing other things and therefore miss when legit posters all of sudden start spamming. But make no mistake about it, if I end up finding out that somebody is promoting their commercial services without being a sponsor, it won't be long before they are warned once and then banned if they keep it up, no matter how many posts they have.